


Walk Like Him

by ohjustpeachy



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Family Fluff, Fluff, Irondad, M/M, Parent Tony Stark, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Team as Family, Tony Stark Has A Heart, spiderson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-02-27 13:28:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18739987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohjustpeachy/pseuds/ohjustpeachy
Summary: Tony isn't Peter's dad, but chaperoning school trips and hanging good grades in the lab tends to confuse people. Or, five times people assumed Tony was Peter's dad, and one time he finds out for himself.





	Walk Like Him

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from the song Walk Like Him by Mitchell Tenpenny!

The first time it happened, they were eating breakfast. Well, Tony was mostly nodding off into his coffee, but the rest of the team was eating breakfast. Steve was standing by the stove, making another batch of pancakes, trying his level best to keep up with the seven superhero appetites in the kitchen.

“Tony, please tell your kid to stop teaching Thor internet words, I’m begging you,” Natasha says, rolling her eyes at the god across from her, currently shoveling pancakes into his mouth. 

“I simply asked if you could yeet me one of those pancakes,” Thor says, like this made all the sense in the world.

“ _Yeet_ isn’t a word! And if it is, I don’t want to know about it!” Natasha says, exasperated.

“Hold on, he’s not _my_ kid. If anything, he’s our _collective_ kid, and I can’t stop him anymore than you can. The other day he came by and told Steve he had BDE. Which, he isn’t _wrong_ , but-”

“Tony!” Steve cuts in sharply, face already taking on its trademark blush. Tony just blows him a kiss over his shoulder.

“Wait, what’s BDE?” Clint’s confusion is the first thing to come between him and his breakfast, and he stops mid-bite to look up at Tony, brows furrowed

“Big Dick-”

“TONY!” The rest of the team yelped while Tony laughs. Peter _wasn’t_ his kid, but he certainly planned on keeping him around.

\--

The second time, it was one of the interns. A real one, who was mostly working with Bruce, nothing like Peter’s fake Stark Internship thing. This girl, Celine, was quiet and completely brilliant, working through undergrad at NYU. Bruce loved having the extra brain power while he worked, and Tony liked that Bruce was more and more relaxed around new people.

Tony had them in his lab one Monday afternoon, helping him work through some changes to a new interface he’d been playing around with. They’d stopped for lunch: burgers from Five Guys, Tony’s absolute weakness, when Celine spotted the test hanging above Tony’s workspace, a large ‘A’ scrawled at the top in green.

“Aw, is that your son’s?” she asks, nodding in the direction of the physics test Peter had brought by the Friday before. He’d gotten a hundred, just like Tony knew he would; the kid was basically a boy genius. But Peter had been so nervous about it that Tony had spent the better part of a week quizzing him. Peter would swing by after school, chattering about his day, the old ladies he’d helped on his way over, and complaining about Flash Thompson.

“I swear Mr. Stark, this guy is like, you know that really old movie, _The Breakfast Club,_ and that guy Bender, who is just, a complete shit for no reason? He’s like that but worse. It seems impossible, I know, but you have to understand…”

Tony just nodded absently, wondering if he should interrupt and let him know that _The Breakfast Club_ was by no means _really old_. The kid made Tony feel absolutely ancient sometimes.

But in between the monologues and Tony’s mid-life crises, he really had helped him prep for his test. When he got it back, Peter came sprinting into the lab, entering in the code Tony had trusted him with _for emergencies only_ , to share his good news.

“I told you, didn't I?” Tony asked, smiling at the excitement on the kid’s face. It really was contagious. “Are you giving this to me? I don’t like to be handed things. And I don’t have a kitchen down here, I can’t exactly hang it on the fridge…” He’d been mostly kidding, but Peter had found a piece of tape and hung it up on one of the monitors that didn’t get a lot of use anymore.

“Couldn’t have done it without you, Mr. Stark!”

And really, the monitor served almost no purpose. Tony had no reason to take it down.

He smiles a little at the question, _no_ on his lips, but Bruce answers before he can.

“He might as well be!” Bruce declares.

Tony just rolls his eyes.

\--

 

The third time was basically Peter’s fault. Tony was at a Stark Industries meeting, biting his tongue to keep from arguing with one of board members when his phone rang. He took the welcome excuse to leave the room and picked it up, despite it being an unknown number.

“This is Linda Williams, the nurse over at MSST? We have Peter Parker here, he passed out in class earlier today and we were-”

“He _what?_ ” Tony’s stomach plummets. “Is he okay? I’m getting in the car now,” he says while Linda Williams explains that he’s totally fine, just had a _bit of an incident_ in biology earlier, and it might be best if he went home and took it easy the rest of the day.

Tony is so focused on getting over to Midtown that he doesn’t stop to wonder why the school was calling _him_ instead of May. Or why his first instinct was to flee a board meeting, no doubt incur the wrath of Pepper, and go pick him up. By the time he gets to the school, filling out a name tag and following the directions the nice woman at the front desk gives him, Tony is nearly out of breath.

“Mr. Stark, I’m really sorry about this,” Peter says from a chair outside the nurse’s office. He looks pale as a ghost, his curly hair damp and plastered down against his forehead. Tony holds out a hand to help him up, grimacing a little at how clammy Peter’s hand was.

“We need a parent or guardian to sign here, then you’re free to go,” Nurse Williams tells him, holding out a clipboard. Tony signs it absently, one hand on Peter’s shoulder, steadying him, before leading him out to the car.

“Want to tell me what happened?” Tony asks. “Air or windows?”

“Windows, please. And yeah, they needed a parent or guardian, but Aunt May doesn't have that much time off left, and I told them I was giving them my uncle’s phone number. I’m sorry, I didn’t know who else to call…” He sounds mortified, his voice as unsure as Tony had ever heard it.

“Not _that_ , you know I don’t care. Plus, you stopped me from calling this asshole an asshole in front of a room full of other assholes, so I actually owe _you_ one. I mean what happened earlier — the nurse said you passed out?”

“Oh, that. Yeah, we had to do a dissection in bio today. One look at the guts and I lost it.” He shudders at the memory and Tony is momentarily worried he should pull over in case he throws up. “Turns out your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man can’t even handle the sight of one cut open frog,” he jokes, but Tony can read the embarrassment clear as day on his face. He lays a reassuring hand on his shoulder while Peter keeps talking.

“...Ned apparently posted the whole thing on Snapchat and now I’m pretty sure I’m going to be a meme, so. Anyway, it’s stupid. I’m sorry.” Peter mumbles, laying his head back against the seat and taking deep, slow breaths.

“Hey. You don’t have to be sorry. These things happen. I know a little about losing your shit, you know that, right? We can hang out at the tower until May gets home, yeah? Think you can handle some food, or should we skip it? You still look a little vomity, Spider-boy…” Tony says, tousling his hair a little.

“I think we better skip it for now,” Peter says, not even fighting the _spider-boy_ comment and keeping his eyes closed.

Tony gets them back to the tower and sets him up with all the _really old movies_ his heart desires, and one of the blankets Steve loves when he’s sick.

“Uh, Mr. Stark?” Peter calls before Tony could get very far. “I know you’re busy, but if you wanted to stick around, we could maybe watch _Ferris Bueller’s Day Off_?

Tony turns, taking in the hopeful look on Peter’s face, how pale and upset he’d been at the school and in the car. Besides, no one should have to be sick alone; Tony flops down next to him on the couch.

“One rule. No calling anyone in this movie old, got it? This is a classic and should be respected as such.”

\--

 

The fourth time, Tony overhears it, and he’s _not_ pleased. He agrees to chaperone Peter’s school trip to the Air & Space Museum, but between a husband who turns into a koala bear in the morning, and rush hour traffic, Tony arrives just a few minutes late. He jogs from his car up to where he sees most of Peter’s class milling around, apology at the ready.

When he joins the group, Peter is standing rigidly, arms folded tightly across his chest, lips pressed in a firm line. It doesn’t take long for Tony to realize the kid in front of him had to be that guy Flash Peter had mentioned; the John Bender of his class. Tony gets there just in time to hear the reason for Peter’s clear discomfort.

“What happened, Penis Parker, Daddy Stark stand you up? Or have you been full of shit this whole time?”

Tony freezes, making brief eye contact with Peter and bringing a finger to his lips.

“Oh, someone here is definitely full of shit, but I don’t think it’s Mr. Parker. I don’t think we’ve met, Mr. ...Bender, is it?” Tony says, eyes flashing but holding out a hand. Flash can only open and close his mouth a few times in response until Tony pulls his hand back.

“You’re… you’re…" 

“Tony Stark. Iron Man. Or, you might know me better as… Daddy Stark, I believe? Anyway, sorry I’m late, Pete, there was an accident on the way over… and well, it doesn’t matter. We’re all here now, right? Right.” He lifts his sunglasses just enough to shoot Peter a wink and a smile and let him lead the rest of the way.

He brushes off Peter’s effusive thanks and Ned’s star-struck expressions, answering all his questions warmly. Because really, it was the least he could do. Shrapnel in his chest he could live with, but high school was its own form of torture.

\--

 

The fifth time, Steve is the one who says it, and Tony feels his insides liquify.

Tony made pasta for dinner, inviting Peter to stay, and he’d listened quietly as he told Steve about his upcoming AP US History test, how he’d spent countless hours cramming. Steve filled him in on some of the more obscure details while Peter stared at him in awe, calling him _Captain Rogers,_ despite Steve’s insistence that just _Steve_ was perfectly fine.

It was a rather domestic evening, all told, and Tony wasn’t entirely surprised to find that he’d enjoyed it. More and more these days he would gladly take the small, quiet moments at home, or with Steve in bed, over some huge trip or new adventure. He wasn’t getting _old_ exactly, but he was starting to think he might just want a family of his own someday. On days like today, with Steve and Peter, the memories of his own father far from his mind, Tony thinks he might just be able to pull it off.

When they’re changed and in bed, much earlier than Tony would ever admit, Steve pulls Tony in close beside him, running his hands down his sides just softly enough to make him shiver.

“Hey,” he says, glancing up at Tony through his ridiculously long lashes, looking every bit like the cat that got the cream. He leans in and kisses a soft line down from Tony’s temple to his lips, leaving no skin un-kissed, until Tony is putty beneath him.

“Hey yourself,” Tony smiles, letting himself relax into the way Steve is stroking his hair.

“Can I tell you a secret without you freaking out?” Steve murmurs into his neck, knowing full well that questions like that send even Tony’s most dormant anxieties into overdrive. He does his best to look composed and Steve laughs. “That’s a no.”

“I’m kidding! Of course you can! You can’t say that and then not tell me, you know what I’m like,” Tony says.

“I do.” Another kiss, soft and sweet and carefully pressed to the arc reactor.

“Steeeeve, come on,” Tony pleads. Steve laughs, warm and syrupy.

“You’re going to make a great dad someday. You’re a great dad _now_ ,” Steve says, his voice low and serious, and Tony is _so_ done for. “I know you’re not _really_ his dad,” Steve adds quickly, anticipating what has become Tony’s automatic response to such implications. “But you’re great with Peter, Tony. And I’ve seen you with Shuri, too and those kids at the hospitals you’re always going above and beyond for and I just… hope you know it.”

Tony feels his heart catch and buries his face into the crook of Steve’s neck, feeling more soft laughter at his response.

“You’re taking this better than I would have guessed. Dare I say Tony Stark _likes_ this news?”

“It’s crossed my mind that I might be able to shake off the old Stark curse one of these days…” Tony hedges.

“You outran that curse a long time ago, Tony, but you should know, I’m ready when you are,” Steve confesses.

Tony doesn’t say anything after that, just pulls Steve in close and lets his lips do the rest.

\--

 

When the adoption process finally ends, the papers are signed, and Tony and Steve are mere _days_ away from bringing home a beautiful baby girl of their own, Peter comes by the Tower, a hastily wrapped package in his hand.

“Didn’t know you were stopping by, Pete, to what do I owe the pleasure? Hey, do you think this looks okay? Not too much, right?”

Tony takes a step back. He’s in what would soon be his daughter’s room, a sentence that would never stop filling him with awe. He was in the middle of hanging a mobile over the crib, handmade, with all of the Avengers dangling carefully over the tiny mattress inside. He figures this way there would always be more than enough people looking over her, even if Steve and Tony weren’t in the room.

“It looks great, Mr. Stark.” Peter is smiling at him, but he’s shifting nervously from foot to foot, taking in the room, and looking at Tony with something uncertain in his eyes.

“What’s up, kid?” He asks again, wrapping an arm around his shoulder.

“Nothing, uh. I just, got you this. It’s stupid, probably. You don’t have to even wear it, I just thought...well, here,” Peter shoves the package into Tony’s hands and takes a step back.

Tony feels warmth rise in his chest as he unwraps it carefully, pulling out a shirt with _Daddy Stark_ in bold letters across the front. He barks a laugh to cover the million other emotions he’s feeling, looking at it.

“I love it. It’s not stupid at all. That kid is still an ass though,” Tony adds. “You think I’m ready for this?” He asks. 

“Mr. Stark, this is going to be the most loved kid in the world. I mean, besides, I think you’re a _great_ dad, so…” He trails off, realizing what he said too late and looking mortified.

A beat passes before either of them say another word, but Tony moves first. “Come here, Spider-boy,” he says, pulling him into a crushing hug.

If his eyes fill up a little while it happens, well. No one needs to know.  

 

**Author's Note:**

> I started this before the Far From Home trailer came out and it turns out I needed the Iron Dad fluff more than I could anticipate!!


End file.
